WW I Draft Cards

Prior to the US's entry into WW1 (approx. 1917-1918) every male between the age of 18 and 40 was required to register for the draft. The information found on the card was provided by the individual himself. The registration cards vary in information depending on the individual draft board. But by and large the cards include: The full name of the person (this means first, full middle name, any additional middle names and last name); the current address of the man; his age; his birth date (some include his place of birth); whether he is a US citizen or a naturalized citizen (some ask if his father was a naturalized citizen and his father's race); his race; his occupation; where he is employed (name of employer); address or location of employment; name and address of his next of kin; some cards ask if the man is married or single and how many people he supports. The card is signed by the draftee. On the back of the card his physical description is noted: Height is broken down by short, medium, tall although some cards give the actual height in feet and inches; Build by slim, medium, stout although some cards list actual weight along with the build; color of eyes and hair; any deformities or injuries are listed (such as one arm missing, blind in one eye, etc.); the name and address of the draft board and the date.

When these original cards were transferred to the East Pointe NARA branch the LDS spent about 3 years microfilming these cards. There are hundreds and hundreds of boxes and the LDS opened one box at a time and filmed them - in state order. However, within each state the cards were filed by draft board, not by county or by draftee. This makes the searching of the microfilm difficult to say the least.

The good news is that the Friends of the National Archives took each box after it was filmed (and checked) and sorted all of these thousands and thousands of cards into - state and then COUNTY order and then in alphabetical order by surname and put then in new boxes. The Friends deserve all the kudos we can give them for this monstrous task.

So ... rather than spending hours and hours searching the LDS microfilm you can order copies of the original cards from NARA. if you know the county your ancestor lived in between 1917-1918.

And BTW - Ancestry.com lists WW1 Draft cards in their searchable data bases, however I know for a fact that there are 22 cards for the surname WHITE found in McIntosh Co, OK and Ancestry only gave me 4 of them so don't depend on that site. I was told yesterday that some reps from Ancestry had visited the archives a couple of weeks ago to talk about filming the cards, took one look at the hundreds and hundreds of boxes and simply left.

For copies: Send a letter requesting copy(s) to: